Govt to launch new bill to tackle ‘fleeing economic offenders’

On the wake of the emergence of a new culture among the Indian elite business community, the central government is set to launch a new bill to tackle the fleeing economic offenders.

A couple of days ago, diamond merchant Nirav Modi allegedly fled the country after wresting a huge sum of over eleven thousand crore Indian rupees through fraudulent transactions.

The first traits of the aforementioned culture came into the public eye when the media houses published the story of Vijay Mallya –how he cheated the public sector backs and escaped without paying the owned sum of around nine thousand crore Indian rupees.

It is not an independent case of a ‘Mallya’ or a ‘Nirav’. In the recent past, the Indian society has witnessed many ‘Mallyas’ and ‘Niravs’.

The money the economic offenders clandestinely amassed is in a sense the money meant for the common public, who is the owner of the public property and money in the right sense. Considering this reality, the proposed bill is of great significance.

The proposed Fugitive Economic Offender Bill will empower the Enforcement Directorate to confiscate the assets of those economic offenders who flee the country to escape the country’s judicial system or show disinterest to return to the country due to the fear of judicial proceedings awaiting them.

Notably, the bill, which has been cleared by the Union Law Ministry, is only applicable in those economic offence cases involving more than one hundred crore Indian rupees.